After letting kids get sex-change surgery at 15, Oregon Democrats try raising smoking age to 21

Smoking bans are all about denormalising smoking. And sex-change surgery seems to be all about denormalising sexual identity. In both cases, an attempt is being made to construct a new reality.

But why does anyone want to construct a new reality? What was so bad about the old reality, in which boys were boys, and girls were girls, and everyone smoked? Conversely, what’s going to be so good about the new reality, in which boys are girls, and girls are boys, and nobody smokes?

Students at Evergreen State College – a school notable for its far-left politics and its preference for measuring students’ performance with “narrative evaluations” instead of grades – have seized control of their campus and are reportedly seeking hostages following a confrontation with a biology professor who objected to a planned demonstration that asked white students and faculty to voluntarily leave campus for a day, the Washington Times reports.

The protest began Tuesday morning when an angry mob of SJW’s confronted Professor Bret Weinstein after he had sent an email to faculty and staff explaining his reasoning for opposing the demonstration.

Now, Weinstein’s reportedly been told to avoid campus because his safety is at risk.

Weinstein’s brother Eric said:

“There’s something sort of ‘Twilight Zone’ about one of the most thoughtful commentators on race, at one of the most progressive schools in the country, getting called a racist.”

First, there were the body language battles. Trump is well known for his efforts to dominate male interlocutors with a firm handshake, often accompanied by an arm wrench: notable victims include the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who survived a 19-second power grip in February.

In Brussels on Thursday for meetings with EU and Nato leaders, he was trumped by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, whose smile and squeeze – reporters present described “knuckles whitening” and “faces tightening” – were so fierce that Trump was forced to yield.

The rematch came at Nato headquarters after lunch, when Macron pointedly embraced German chancellor Angel Merkel, and shook hands with several other heads of state, before finally turning to Trump – who jovially pulled the Frenchman’s arm half out of its socket.

19 Responses to Living In The Twilight Zone

Surreal, indeed!Growing up can be confusing, especially if you’re a kid in Oregon. You can’t drive a car until 16. You can’t leave home until 18. And if a new bill passes the state legislature, you can’t pick up a pack of cigarettes until 21.

But Oregon offers one state perk long before any of those other milestones. With or without parental permission, the state subsidizes gender reassignment surgery starting at age 15.
Actually, gender reassignment surgery follows a few years after hormone treatment and psychological assessment sessions or so. That means, the process of transitioning starts much earlier.
So, a pre-teen is classed as capable of making the FULLY INFORMED decision to undergo years of drastic, expensive and eventually irreversible, treatment? I don’t think so.

But why does anyone want to construct a new reality? What was so bad about the old reality, in which boys were boys, and girls were girls, and everyone smoked? Conversely, what’s going to be so good about the new reality, in which boys are girls, and girls are boys, and nobody smokes?
I did mention that I was a tomboy who benefited on the long run from these fantastic years. I had the best of both worlds without worrying about gender identity. In any case, I did fancy boys only when the hormones kicked in, so gender re-assignment (I’m glad it didn’t exist back then and my mum would have screeched opposition to it, anyway) would have raised question about my sexual orientation and created problems where none existed before.

I don’t think it’s about constructing a new reality. It’s encouraging people to be dissatisfied with who they are and to become pre-occupied with it. It’s the same thing with beauty and cosmetic surgery. And it’s a gold mine, too.
As a parent, gender re-assignment prior to adult age would have been something to refuse outright.
I do have a question, though. Who pays for the lengthy and expensive process? What is the impact on the cost of treatment for average citizen ailments, e.g broken limbs, cuts, minor operations etc.? Does this mean the insurance companies need increase the (?monthly) contribution whilst decreasing their %-age of what they pay towards treatment?

It’s encouraging people to be dissatisfied with who they are and to become pre-occupied with it. It’s the same thing with beauty and cosmetic surgery. And it’s a gold mine, too.

Excellent point, Brigitte. I think this is also a goal of the denormalization prominent in the antismoking propaganda.

Here in the U.S., all television ads for pharmaceutical products target conditions which make people feel ‘abnormal’ and dissatisfied with themselves, such as depression, anxiety, smoking, obesity and erectile dysfunction.

It’s become a tried-and-true formula for huge profits: Convince people that they are ‘abnormal’ or ‘inferior’ then provide them with an expensive ‘solution.’

It helps to say what it’s about. It helps to have a link too. And it was about a New York restaurant with a huge collection of pipes from pipe-smokers who’d frequented it including Albert Einstein and Theodore Roosevelt. And Rogan and his guest were talking about what a shame it was that nobody could smoke there any more. And then the guest lit up a pipe in the studio. (34:00?)

He lit up a pipe in a studio? Where’s the studio? Why wasn’t he arrested and frogmarched away by police in hazmat suits? Why didn’t a mob of angry parents descend on him, waving their children?

This week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the appointment of its new director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He will replace the outgoing Margaret Chan. It’s an opportunity to reflect on Chan’s strange leadership and the direction the WHO has been heading in.

While in office, Chan praised North Korea for its low rates of obesity, congratulated Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte for his crackdown on smoking, and failed to respond to the 2014 ebola outbreak in West Africa because she was at a Moscow summit on e-cigarettes. In short, she will not be missed.

But Chan’s tenure will be remembered for more than her odd pronouncements. On the eve of Ghebreyesus’ appointment, The Times revealed that the WHO’s annual budget for travel and accommodation reached £153million last year. To put that into context, WHO expenditure on AIDS control in the same period totalled £55million. Malaria, meanwhile, received just £47million.
Now, it is understandable that a global health body, tasked with responding to crises around the world, might spend a lot on travel and accommodation for its staff. But, increasingly, this is not where the money is going. Much of it was spent ferrying dignitaries to a never-ending series of conferences and conventions. The Times cites the example of Chan’s visit to a summit in Guinea, where she stayed in a hotel room advertised at £800 a night.

Again, such expense might be justified if these trips were concerned with tackling infectious diseases. But they weren’t. Rather than spending its time treating viruses and tackling pandemics, the WHO has morphed into the world’s foremost lifestyle meddler – it’s become obsessed with obesity, alcohol and smoking. That Chan felt moved to praise autocratic regimes reflects the authoritarian turn the WHO has undertaken – policing lifestyles is now its raison d’être.

Decline and Fall of Western Civilization. I think we’re up to Phase Two. And once this sexually and politically confused generation is not just of voting, but of office-holding age, it’s straight down the tubes. Man, they’re fucked up!

And interesting, isn’t it, how, on the one hand, they’re so delicate and (snow)flaky they need “safe spaces” and teddy bears and coloring books to get past the mere alarming idea that someplace, somewhere Ann Coulter might be speaking, yet they’re first to smash windows, burn cars and threaten violence to “persons and property.” And what should we think of the elders who let them get away with this mindless, slogan-strewn anarchy–the ovine parents, and the cowed deans, and the castrated cops? It would seem that that generation too has had their balls lopped off, and i say that with due apology to all the many ballsy women I know who wouldn’t put up with this crap for a minute.

Obviously it’s OK to set fire to anything, as long as it doesn’t contain tobacco. Other smoke, such as that from cars and storefronts has never been ‘proven’ by ‘science’ to have magical abilities like traveling through concrete floors and across telephone lines.

And once this sexually and politically confused generation is not just of voting, but of office-holding age, it’s straight down the tubes. Man, they’re fucked up!
You might not have heard about lowering the voting age to 16 is on the political agenda.
16 year olds cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes but they can vote for the next government which rolls out the next fear to get these (sorry youngsters, I was that age, too, quite a while ago!) gullible young people’s vote. Perhaps the adults stopped to care to turn up for voting?

And interesting, isn’t it, how, on the one hand, they’re so delicate and (snow)flaky they need “safe spaces” and teddy bears and coloring books to get past the mere alarming idea that someplace, somewhere Ann Coulter might be speaking, yet they’re first to smash windows, burn cars and threaten violence to “persons and property.” And what should we think of the elders who let them get away with this mindless, slogan-strewn anarchy–the ovine parents, and the cowed deans, and the castrated cops?
Good question.

Sex change at 16 but 21 to smoke? Oh for those days of all our childhoods when our parents, upon hearing of such lunacy, could roll their eyes heavenwards and proclaim simply “Americans!”. Now of course we know better and that it will be coming here shortly. All colonial craziness does it seems :(

Only in America. Not any more.
Like Australia and Canada, they are all still very young countries and haven’t yet experienced horrors like the Norman Conquest or rule by Rome so every new stupid and illiberal new idea must seem shiny and bright for a while.
America has only just started apologising for inflicting Eugenics on their fellow countrymen and women.

Virginia apologises for eugenics policy
2002

“The state of Virginia has become the first American state to apologise for the forced sterilisation of thousands of its citizens as part of a eugenics, or selective breeding, programme in the last century.
In all, 30 states conducted sterilisation programmes – in Virginia’s case until 1979 – in an effort to wipe out human deficiencies and vices assumed to be hereditary”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1965811.stm

Starting in 1924, more than 7,000 people considered genetically inferior – most of them poor, uneducated, black or mentally retarded – were forcibly sterilised in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“We must remember the Commonwealth’s past mistakes in order to prevent them from recurring,” Mr Warner said in the statement.

The statement was read out during the unveiling of a memorial to Carrie Buck, who was an 18-year-old unwed mother when she became the first person forcibly sterilised under Virginia’s 1924 law.

What are we heading for?https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/26/nhs-test-all-pregnant-women-for-smoking-nice-rcmEngland’s public health chief is urging hospitals to give every pregnant woman a carbon monoxide test to see if they smoke, as part of an NHS-wide drive to persuade patients to kick the habit.
Persuade?
What will happen if the woman declines to be persuaded? Threats? Force? Treatment withheld? Child taken away?…in an effort to wipe out human deficiencies and vices…
I shudder to think.

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